The Water Information Program

A small water district in Gardner is scrambling to find water to augment its two wells after water rights it was using were no longer available this spring. The state has issued an order to shut off the wells, but as of Thursday they were still pumping while officials tried to work out a solution. We have a small population, and 90 percent are older people on fixed incomes, so we can’t really raise rates,” said Steve Wachterman, who is a board member, business manager and operator for the district, which supplies water to 65 taps. For the last five years, the district has used return flows from water on Wolf Springs Ranch in Huerfano County to augment its wells. Under state rules adopted for the Arkansas Valley in 1996, most pumping depletions must be matched by an equivalent amount of surface water. Depletions in Gardner would be counted against flows in the Huerfano River, which joins the Arkansas River east of Pueblo. Wolf Springs Ranch uses water from the Rio Grande basin brought in under the Medano and Hudson diversions. Water brought into a basin can be used to extinction under Colorado water law, so return flows are often reused or sold for augmentation of native water.

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